How it All Begins
by bluewindranger
Summary: In which the Navy Thunder Ranger never existed, Tori is an "innocent" twelve-year-old who never became the Blue Wind Ranger, and Dustin is not a "comic book geek". (Quite the contrary.) Confusion and chaos ensue. AU of Tori/Blake.


**Author's** **Note:** POWER RANGERS! I HAVE COME BACK TO YOU! MWAH! Well, Tori's so awesome. I still love her more than Aang and Korra and that's saying quite a bit.

Yes, yes, yes, I know that it was mentioned in the pilot of PRNS that Shane, Tori, and Dustin had only been at the Wind Ninja Academy for about a year, but who cares?

* * *

_They say that good things come to those who wait.  
I'll break it to you.  
I'm not really good at waiting.  
And then some guys get to run off in colorful suits to supposedly "save the world".  
Boys couldn't save a fly if they tried.  
But me, I'm stuck in a high-tech base with a bunch of computers to monitor.  
So I just sit in there like a good little girl.  
And I hate every moment of it.  
But, after all, that is..._

**How It All Begins**

_Every tale has three parts._

_Beginning._  
_Middle._  
_End._

_This is my story._

* * *

**Beginnings**

* * *

_i. evil carrot soup  
_

**I asked Shane Clarke what he could remember about a day before he got turned into the Red Wind Ranger.  
He said something about evil carrot soup.**

* * *

The soup looks like liquified Cheetos, and it has the consistency of melted rubber.

Shane glances up at the cook, his eyes wide with horror. "You're kidding me, right?"

"EAT!" the cook bellows, causing Shane to jump in his seat. The chef spins away with a disgusted huff.

Rory makes some sympathetic clucking noises as his fellow skateboarder turns a nasty shade of green. "Dude, I _warned_ you to bring your own lunch..."

The red-clad teenager mutters something about puke as an answer.

"Aw, bro, don't worry!" Rory enthuses while taking a huge bite out of his sandwich. "'S only twelve forty-five. Y'have—"

Shane leaps up, his eyes flaring with panic. "Twelve forty-five? Damn it, I gotta go!" Shane drops everything he is holding—spilling the soup all over his cellphone—and darts out of the cafeteria door. He bangs out of the double doors to the skateboarding park and skids around a corner, all the while pulling on a sweatshirt.

Shane reaches a yellow convertible. The passenger seat door hangs wide open, and Shane slides into the seat, feeling his neck and face heat up.

"Late!" a guy with curly hair crows from the driver's seat. Dustin Brooks swivels around to face Shane, his mop of brown curls hanging over his disapproving glare.

There is a rustle from the back of the van. "You say that as if it is a surprise," a girl's voice mutters. Tori climbs over the seat, falling down next to Shane. Head-first, none the less. Naturally, this fall draws a groan of pain from the twelve-year-old girl.

"Owwww..."

"Tori!" Dustin calls. "Get up and put on your seatbelt! We're going!"

Shane watches on, amused as Tori scrambles upright on the seat. Her long blond hair is spread all across her face, like she had been sitting in front of a fan for an hour, and her face is a bright, crimson red that would have made a cardinal flush with pride.

The seatbelt clicks into place, and without wasting a second, Dustin steps on the gas and shoots down the road. Shane jolts backwards due to the sudden acceleration, and if there wasn't a headrest behind him, his neck would have snapped in half.

"Slow down!" he yelps as Dustin shoots down the lane at what must have been eighty miles an hour.

"Speed up!" Tori urges, a crazy grin slapped across her face.

Dustin ignores Tori and yells to Shane, "We're already, like, twenty minutes late! If you came out earlier from the skateboarding park, then I wouldn't have to go as fast!"

"Faster! Faster!" Tori chants repeatedly, bouncing up and down on her seat. Shane rolls his eyes and privately thinks that the girl has the maturity level of a two-year-old.

"Dustin, you're going to get caught by the police for speeding!" Shane warns, and nor is this a false statement. Dustin had already gotten at least five tickets for "reckless driving", although it was mostly because Dustin really didn't want to be late to class.

The brown-haired teen made another sharp swerve around the corner, jerking Shane to the right so that his forehead hit Tori on the head.

"Ew!" Tori complains, jerking away from Shane. "Man sweat! That's gross!" She yanks at her hair.

Shane pulls himself upright. "Dustin, _slow down!_"

"No! Wait! We're almost there!" Dustin has now guided the car to the rickety mountain path. They whoosh past a sign (_SPEED LIMIT: 15 mph)_ and make another sharp turn that throws Shane into the side door. They speed past a pair of hikers, almost hitting them on what must have been the young couple's honeymoon, and the car rumbles onto a dirt path, which opens up into a wide clearing near a forest.

Dustin finally hits the brakes, and kills the car's engine. He gets out, slamming the door behind him. Shane and Tori both follow suit. The three all look up at the woods that are towering above them.

"Man, this place has always given me the creeps," Shane mutters as they trudge into the forest.

"I hear you, bro!" Dustin agrees, swerving past a patch of ivy.

Tori flashes a smirk at him as she hops over a log. "You guys are so lame!"

Dustin gently smacks her. "Oh, shut up."

Shane frowns at the blond girl in a sudden revelation. "Wait a moment. What the hell are you doing here, anyways?"

The blonde slyly smiles as Dustin's mouth partially falls open. "Oh, shoot. I was...supposed to drop you off..."

"Too late!" Tori giggles. "You're stuck with me, so, ha!"

"Your parents are gonna kill me!" Dustin screeches, his head in his hands. He stamps his foot, muttering swears under his breath.

Tori scoffs, kicking at a branch. "Who _cares?_ They certainly don't. They wouldn't even notice if I packed everything up in the house, hopped on a plane to Jamaica, and murdered my sister."

Shane throws her a sideways glance. "_That _sounds horribly like an extreme exaggeration."

Tori pouts and gives Shane an amused look. "Ten bucks says that it's true."

The red-clad teen rolls his eyes, mutters something about girls being harder to understand than quantum physics, and then stomps into the clearing.

The waterfall stands above them, thousands of gallons of foaming water tumbling down the steep cliff. Shane feels the spray of the water collect on his face, hundreds of tiny droplets clinging to his skin and sending a cool sensation throughout him.

Dustin paces back and forth, looking around. "Yo, dudes...don't you guys think that it's a little quiet?"

"Yeah..." Shane shifts from foot to foot. "A little _too_ quiet, one may think..."

Tori ignores the boys' uneasy remarks and kneels down by the lake of water, dabbing at the surface with her fingertips and skimming them over the surface.

"You guys worry too much," she says while manipulating a few droplets to float in the air. "I mean, come on. Have some fun with your life! All you guys do is worry about, oh, dear, we're gonna get ambushed, uh, is my girlfriend cheating on me, oh my fucking gosh, Sensei's gonna kill me! Why don't you start talking about the harmful aspects of bunny rabbits next?" Tori shakes her head. "Boys are _so_ pessimistic."

"Aren't you a little too young to be saying 'fuck'?" Dustin frowns.

"What did _you_ do when you were twelve?" Tori complains.

"I didn't say fuck."

"...Shut up."

"Rabbits make me sneeze," Shane mutters.

Tori rolls the water through the air. "You see what I mean? Utterly depressing."

"We live in the real world," Dustin drily replies. "Just wait until you're seventeen and dating."

Tori laughs derisively, relinquishing her control over the water droplets one by one. "Well, I'm not seventeen and dating, so I'm not going to worry about it yet."

"You never said that you were seventeen and not dating, or that you weren't seventeen but you were dating," Shane teases. "Being unspecific ain't gonna clear it up, Tori."

Tori bristles. "I'm _not_ seventeen, nor am I _dating!_"

"Whoa, jeez!" Shane holds up his hands in mock surrender. "Ants in your pants?"

Tori huffs and turns around to presumably yell at the air ninja when a streak of black knocks her down, sending her tumbling straight into the water with a huge splash.

Dustin scrambles to the edge of the lake. "Tori? Tori? Can you hear me? Ow!" He flips head-over-heels, barreling into Shane as a whole hoard of ninjas materialized in front of them.

Shane looks at Dustin, and the other ninja curtly nods. Revealing their ninja training outfits, they take up a fighting stance, mirroring the other ninjas' position.

Tori's head pops out of the lake. "Have you people ever heard of something called _child abuse?_ The water is so. Fucking. Freezing!" Pause. "Sensei keeps fish in here? Seriously? ARGH! THEY TICKLE!"

Shane leans back as a bunch of ninjas in his faction charged him. Flipping backwards to avoid a kick, he blocks a punch with his arm and throws a right hook, which the ninja catches with her hand. The ninja twists, and Shane groans in pain.

He wrenches away, gasping, from the ninja's tight grip and then looks up. Jumping, he floats in the air as if it was solid ground, and grins down at the ninjas below.

The same girl who practically dislocated his wrist jumps up as well, running straight towards Shane. She hits him in the stomach at point blank range, and Shane lands on the ground, head-first.

Dustin grits his teeth as the earth ninjas surround him, a solid wall of black and yellow. Dustin launches a spinning kick, which is blocked by the ninja he aims it at, and parries an arm sweep. Setting his jaw, he jumps up and dives into the ground, disappearing in a plume of dust. The other ninjas look around, utterly confused, but when the smoke clears, there is Dustin, sunk halfway into the soft dirt with straw in his hair and struggling. Staring at each other with laughs, they chuckle at the hapless earth ninja.

Tori, meanwhile, has just pulled herself from the lake when she is pushed back in yet again by two ninjas with outfits trimmed in blue. The twelve-year-old shakes the water from her hair and jumps on top of the lake. "Seriously? Pick on someone your own size!" She runs on top of the water away from the two water ninjas, who pursue her like a cat after a tasty bit of prey.

Tori turns, looking up, only to see the two ninjas leap into the air, their legs outstretched to nail her in the chest. Panicking, she loses her balance and loses her concentration. She tumbles off of her spot on the lake, doing an unprecedented belly flop and getting wet for the third time in five minutes. She couldn't get more soaked with liquid now if she were standing in a downpour.

Shane stumbles back near the edge of the lake, which Tori is swimming up to. Two triumphant water ninjas follow her, walking on top of the water like they have done it since they were two.

"Tori, you have seaweed on your head," Shane whispers to Tori, who picks it off, hissing. "What's Sensei trying to turn the lake into; Sea World?"

Dustin shambles to Shane's side, his lower half full of dirt and straw, a couple stray pieces of dried leaves and grass in his hair. "I need a bath."

"Be my guest!" Tori sneers, and then flicks water at him.

The cry of a hawk sounds across the waterfall, and every ninja looks up, squinting. Shane self-consciously pulls his jacket closer, mumbling, "Oh, man..."

The red-tailed hawk lands with a flutter on the ground and grows into a man with blue, brown, and white robes. He taps his staff upon the ground. "That is all for today."

All the ninjas but Shane, Dustin, and Tori bow and streak off, leaving a gust of wind in their wake.

Tori flinches and inches behind Shane, who nudges her back into position.

"Shane and Dustin," Sensei Kanoi Watanabe begins. "I am deeply disappointed in you two. I will expect a visit from the pair of you, so we may discuss your lack of commitment to ninja training."

"Hey...what about Tori?" Shane complains, and the amateur water ninja stomps on his foot, shooting a glare at him, like, _Thanks a lot._

"I expect you, Tori, to meet me with them," Sensei agrees. "Your commitment to training and attendance record is impeccable, but we shall discuss your...lack of respect for a schedule and authority. You were not supposed to come today with Shane and Dustin."

Tori bites her lip. "Yeah. No problem."

Cue awkward pause.

"I mean, yes, Sensei."

"I will see all of you tomorrow," Sensei says with finality. Walking out to the lake, he raises his staff, summoning a portal. He disappears in a flash of light.

"See?" Dustin rounds on Tori. "I told you to not come with us, but no, no one ever listens to me. You two call me the logical one? Why don't you listen to me, then?"

"Whoa!" Tori takes a step back, her hands up in a surrender position. "Calm down! Yeah, sure, you're the logical one, but you don't make decisions for me! So, I got punished along with you guys...what of it?"

"It wasn't _your_ decision for you to be sent back home!" Dustin snaps, poking Tori in the chest. "It was your parents! And, yeah, this is _all your fault!_ If you hadn't come with us, the ninjas wouldn't have attacked, and Sensei wouldn't have had to come to fetch us in front of half the student body!"

"_What?_" Tori demands. "It is _not_ all my fault! You let me come with you! The ninjas would have attacked anyways, and the outcome would have been the same, minus me!"

"Sure," Dustin sneers, "believe what you want." He stalks off, leaving the water ninja in the dust.

Shane shakes his head in disappointment and, after a moment's hesitation, nudges Tori towards the edge of the forest. "C'mon, let's get you home."

"You don't have the car keys."

"...Right, I forgot about that. We'll just walk, then."

"But Sensei's going to throw a fit when he realizes that you're disobeying his orders. Again."

"So are your parents."

Tori huffs and sulkily kicks at a pebble, her hands stuffed rebelliously in her pockets. "Says you."

"Says me," Shane firmly agrees. "Now, come on. Time isn't going to wait for us to get back."

* * *

**End Notes:** Huh, this was going to be a one-shot. But then, I decided to split it up. Oh well...

Yeah, Dustin came off as a bastard in this. :P What can I say? This is AU. I point at my creative liberties. XD


End file.
